Deeper

Not a “flat” preset, by any means, this has deeper Ranges on the high end, which means the signal will be bassier as it gets louder, and more compressed in the high end as it gets louder. Attack and release times are faster, so the compressor grabs more.

Low-level Enhancer

A classic loudness enhancer as described in Chapter 4 in the Low-Level Compression section. As the sound gets louder, it approaches “flat compression”, but all low-level sounds will have the bass and treble boosted, as seen by the upper edge of the purple Range band.

This is not a particularly subtle preset. To reduce the boost, simply lower the Gain of Bands 1 and 4 (they are preset to 4.9, which is 3dB above the middle two bands). Try only 1dB (set them both to 2.9) and then you have a very nice subtle low-level enhancement setup.

Upward Comp +3dB

A gentle upward compressor with flat response. It lifts the low-level sounds by 3dB at the average Threshold of -35dB.

Lower the Master Threshold for more subtlety, raise it for more pronounced effect. Note the crossover settings are different from the +5 setup. Band 1 is set to 65Hz for the very low bass; Band 2 is the next octave and primarily deals with the fundamental of the bass guitar and meat of the kick; Band 3 is very broad, from 130Hz to 12kHz; doing most of the work; and Band 4 is the air compressor. These points give greater control over the bass (dividing it into 2 bands), but have no “ess-band” range. If upward compression provides too much of a boost in the highs (a common result due to the lower overall energy of HF), then simply lower the Threshold in the high band.

Upward Comp +5dB

Similar to the previous setup, but with different crossover points, for different flexibilities. This one is more similar to the Basic Multi, with crossovers at 75, 5576, and 12249, so that you have bands for Low Bass, Low-Mid,High-Mid, “Ess” or presence band, and the Air. These points give greater control over the high end (2 bands). This is a more aggressive setting, the main difference being the crossover points, which changes the Thresholds significantly from the +3 setup. Easily made more or less aggressive by changing the Master Gain setting. If upward compression provides too much of a boost in the highs (a common result due to the lower overall energy of HF), then simply lower the Threshold in the high bands.

Multi Opto Mastering

Now we are going into areas that haven’t actually existed yet, other then in C4. A multiband opto-coupled device!

This is a rather transparent setting for mastering and pre-mastering. Even though ours is virtual, the gentle release times that become ever slower as they come back to zero gain reduction really have the sound and behavior of opto’s, just as the Renaissance Compressor does. The longish attack and release times of this setup let the processor gently increase lower levels while

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